I really dragged out the suspense on Future!Helen’s situation. I do like the character designs on the future versions of the characters (yes, Helen included). Of course, these are only the designs for this messed-up dystopian future. They’d probably look different in a happier future.

I wrote this strip early on and later worried about whether Dave would really think he and Helen would be likely to marry. In the end, I kept it because I thought it was funny.

Those are some awesome nos.

This is another really early script. I like that Future!Mell simply will not stop lying to Dave and messing with his head. I imagine the temptation to lie to time-travelers would be intense. Maybe it’s just me.

Ha! That looks kind of like my Macintosh, which is now seven years old. Computer technology evolves too quickly for science fiction.

Drawing architecture is HARD.

Chris, Mell’s PR guy, is named after The Deadliest PR Guy in the World, protagonist of a very early comic by my good friend and fellow Viz editor Jason Thompson (with script by Patrick Macias, who used to work for Viz and now runs Otaku USA magazine). I was given a copy when I first started at Viz, and it was my introduction to the magical world of Jason Thompson.

So here it is: another candidate for Most Ridiculously Obscure Reference in Narbonic. Jason, you are the wind beneath my wings.

“Central Central” is a much less obscure reference to A Wrinkle in Time, and a nod to Future!Helen’s situation.

So, what’s the secret? Please, for goodness sake!Oh, good Lord, did I and Helen wed?Brother, wouldn’t that just take the cake!You might think that Helen’s strange now,‘Cause she’s gone through quite a change now,And you might say that she’s gone out of her head!Oh yeah!

I like the fact that with this strip we get to see Dave completely rattled without actually disclosing any new information. And, of course, Mell utterly demolishing Dave’s composure with just one sentence.

(Though, I’m not sure if Dave should be quite so impressed given that he and Lady Dave had to invent a quantum data bus just last year. But then, it’s not like his long years under the ground haven’t taken a toll on his sense of perspective.)

Quibits! Quibits!Quantum now makes the new bits!Technical beauty! Superposed state!It’s all compute-y! Isn’t it great?Yeah, quibits! Quibits!Microsoft ain’t worth two bits!Quibits, I want ’em! Quibits are in!They’re full of quantum! They’re full of win!They’re quibits!Quibits, quibits, quibits!